Indian SREs placed a phone call at 6 AM on Sunday
Hi Blind, I'm reaching out to address an incident that occurred recently. As the title indicates, I received phone calls that completely disrupted my weekend morning sleep. I work as a software engineer based in the US, while the SREs who called me are located in India. Although I've encountered P1 PagerDuty alerts on weekends before, this was the first time I received direct phone calls early on a weekend morning. While I eventually helped them, I found it difficult to return to sleep due to the disruption and felt somewhat insulted. I also informed them that I would escalate the matter to my manager to ensure a better understanding and resolution. I'm seeking clarity on the exact implications of this situation. Was their intention to insult me, or is it culturally acceptable to make such calls early on weekend mornings in India? I welcome insights from both my peers and those familiar with Indian culture. Thank you.
Indian work culture is fucked up. There is no work-life boundary. Bosses, colleagues usually have each other’s personal phone numbers and call outside of work hours. Although in this case, if it was a serious emergency, it’s possible that the SREs were in a panic and didn’t realize that you are in US and it’s early morning for you.
No, they do definitely know I am in US and it must be early morning in my time zone
So is American work culture run by Indians in the US. There’s no difference, can’t complain.
? If you arent on call why would you even allow your phone to ring?
They made the direct phone calls w/o any agreement. I didn’t allow it. Even I was not also on call.
Your English is giving away that you are from India
Talk to your manager n don't create a scene out of it. A good manager knows how to handle it diplomatically.
1. They probably didn't think of the cross time zone implication while freaking out. 2. Set boundaries. You simply should tell them you're away from laptop, unable to assist while off call, etc. Escalate with your manager to educate them on not calling you in the future.
Talk to your tpm and manager to formalise sop's.
I’m sorry I dont get it. Was this a planned call or not? If it wasn’t planned, why did you pick up? If it was planned, why did you go along with it in the first place if it was going to bother you later? You should either ask to be called at a later time of the day (or better yet, during the work week) or not complain about this if you agree to it initially. Am I missing something here?
I was not on call, but they just think that I am the expert to resolve the issue. I don’t allow it at all. They made the calls multiple time and I wake up because of the noisy rings.
Turn off your phone or silent it at least?
Spin up the issue to your advantage. Sunday morning in US is Sunday evening in India. I'm not sure what exactly SREs do at your company and if they're supposed to be working over the weekend, but if you were truly the only one they could think of who could help resolve the issue, it puts you in a better spot to showcase your need for the company and use that for a promotion or raise. I've been paged quite a few times when I wasn't on-call. It is annoying, but it is not an insult IMHO. This might be different for you based on your relationship with the India team, but try to look at it from a positive perspective and see if you can use it to your benefit.
Thanks for sharing your personnel experience. I have written down such cases in my self reflection for visibility, but I felt this case crossed the line and thus wanna gather various opinions. I really hope that the SRE don’t insult me.
Simple. Don’t be oncall when you are not oncall. Otherwise, expect your phone to ring again.
How is it a direct attack on the Indian system of working? Even I received a call from the US at 6 AM India time. How is it acceptable for the US team to call us at any time they want? Are they entitled to do so? Just because we don’t complain doesn't mean they are entitled to.
Of course your case is not allowed too. You can also complain and escalate it. I received such requests many times from the Indian SRE, but didn’t complain. But this case crossed the line and wanna understand what it means. I also hope that they don’t insult me.
TC?
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